Can Religion Trump Race? Interracial Friendship in Protestant Churches.

Abstract

This dissertation uses a mixed methods approach to investigate the factors that influence interracial friendship formation, with particular attention to the role of identity and organizational context. Specifically, I examine interracial friendship in the context of Protestant, racially heterogeneous churches because of their importance as sites for the formation of social relationships and as sites for identity construction. Further, as voluntary organizations, they provide an opportunity to assess the role of self-selection in the friendship formation process. First, I use a nationally representative dataset, the Panel Study of American Race and Ethnicity (Emerson and Sikkink 2006) to assess the role of racial and religious identity salience and organizational demographic composition on individuals’ propensity to form close cross race friends within their church communities. The results indicate that race persists as important influence on the decision to join racially heterogeneous churches, having close church friends, and whether those friends are of a different race. Accounting for selection into racially heterogeneous churches and having close church friends, whites show greater in-group preference than other racial groups. The analyses also suggest that the salience of racial identity negatively affects the formation of cross-race ties, and the salience of religious identity positively affects the formation of cross-race ties. In addition, the larger the size of one’s racial group and the more racially heterogeneous the congregation, the less likely one is to have interracial friends in church. Secondly, using a combination of survey data and qualitative data including interviews, participant observation, and sermons, I conduct in-depth analyses of two multiracial churches, each with two congregational sites, in order to understand the ways in which church organizations influence the formation of close cross-race ties. I find that organizational context influences interracial friendship formation among its members by attracting a selected membership and by shaping congregational, racial, and religious identities in relation to religious goals. I also show how leadership establishes an environment conducive to interrace relationships through its role as a racial bridge and ingroup prototype. Moreover, the analyses show how the organization develops the value of social capital in the form of interracial ties.